Does Anybody Remember Circus World

[JEDIPRINCESS]

I Know This Is Not A Disney Park But Does Anyone Remember Circus World. I Came Across This Old Picture Of Me When I Went To Disney World The Very First Time In 1977 And I Remember Going To Circus World. I Always Thought It Was Part Of Disney Until I Got Older And It Was Gone.does Anyone Know Whatever Became Of The Park?

[jarmitc2032]

Circus World whats that????????

[tiggerguy]

Circus World whats that????????

I will answer this even though it has nothing to do with Disney

Circus World was an amusement park that had a circus theme, it went bankrupt and was closed down in the late 1980's.

By 1991 it had become Boardwalk and Baseball. It was an amusement park built on a boardwalk theme. It also had a minor league baseball stadium inside.

It was located 30 minutes south (towards Tampa) on I-4. Business was so bad after awhile the park just shut down in the middle of an operating day and they kicked everyone out of the park without a refund.

[JLTraveling]

I loved Circus World!! I was a small child when it closed, much to my disappointment, as I longed for the day when I would be old enough for the tightrope or the trapeze in the audience participation circus. And that wooden roller coaster was just incredible!! To this day it's one of my favorite rides. I heard it was moved to a park in Arkansas.

At any rate, Circus World didn't go bankrupt, it was bought by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich during their 1980s buying spree, when they also acquired Sea World and Cypress Gardens. In 1986, HBJ decided they didn't like the Circus theme, so they shut it down for the Boardwalk and Baseball transformation. It reopened on Valentines Day 1987. In 1989, the by-now seriously in debt HBJ sold all of their parks at auction. Busch bought them out, and like Brian said, in the middle of an operating day in January 1990, the park was closed... I heard refunds were offered, but I wasn't there so I don't know for sure.

Boardwalk and Baseball was basically Circus World without a theme. Allegedly the theme was "seaside amusement park" or something like that, but Circus World's theming and activities were much, much better, IMHO. Boardwalk and Baseball just seemed like a shadow of Circus World's glory.

I think that park was ultimately doomed by location, that area of the I-4 corridor never exactly became a tourist mecca, it's too far from Disney for most people to pay it much attention, and it's not located in a big city that people might be visiting for other reasons. I'm pretty sure locals made up most of their attendance. It'll be interesting to see how Cypress Gardens does over the next few years. They've undergone this huge adventure park redesign, but is it going to be enough to attract tourists to beautiful downtown Winter Haven? I've loved Cypress Gardens all my life, but I'm local. I can't imagine coming to Disney from another state and thinking Cypress Gardens was important enough to warrant a day trip. Time will tell.

[dzney4lyf]

Circus World was so much fun when I was young..opps I still am young!! Anyway.. I have a picture somewhere around here of my family and we have our faces painted like clowns... my father is not the type of person to do a thing like that... So my mother had to beg him to get his face painted w/ us. She told him that EVERYONE gets their faces painted. He agreed.. Once it was done he realized that MANY children get it done... But not many of the parents! He was a little P*ssed at her. Especially when he had to stop for gas on the way home and go into the station to pay for it w/ a clown face on!!

[JEDIPRINCESS]

Thanks guy I always wonder whatever happen to it. Everytime I look at some of the pictures we took there I kept thinking to myself was this ever a part of Disney? Like I said I was a little kid then and it was my first trip ever to Florida so every thing to me was DisneyWorld to me. I never new it was that far from the park I just assumed that it was close like Sea World and Universal. It 's a shame that they close it I think if they open it back up and put it closer to the WDW and the others I think they would make some money. Even though every time we go do to Disney we just stay in the Disney parks I think I would take a day and venture over there if it was still open. Oh well time will tell if they would ever bring it back I doubt it but it sure was a fun place while it was open.

[Lou Mongello]

Here are some great links to the old park:

http://www.dizzyrambler.com/legends/...W_History.html
http://history.amusement-parks.com/CircusWorldFL.html
http://www.lostparks.com/cwld.html
http://members.tripod.com/~savehorizons/bwhistory.htm

I remember (vaguely) visiting as a kid, and then passing the B&B as I got older, wondering what that was like. I think the fact that it was kind of in the middle of "nowhere", too far away from WDW, etc., helped lead to its demise.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Circus World was in Haines City off of US27 near the intersection with I-4, as we made the trek from Naples to avoid the construction of I-75. The huge red and white striped tent was always a beacon that WDW was near, even though there was not much else around except for orange trees and the Mom and Pop stands. Sadly, we never visited.

[JEDIPRINCESS]

Here are some great links to the old park:

http://www.dizzyrambler.com/legends/...W_History.html
http://history.amusement-parks.com/CircusWorldFL.html
http://www.lostparks.com/cwld.html
http://members.tripod.com/~savehorizons/bwhistory.htm

I remember (vaguely) visiting as a kid, and then passing the B&B as I got older, wondering what that was like. I think the fact that it was kind of in the middle of "nowhere", too far away from WDW, etc., helped lead to its demise.

Thanks for the great links Lou. It sure does bring back some great memories. I also think I saw Doug Henning there too I'm not 100% sure but we did see a magic act and it scare me have to death beacuse I thought the magican cut the lady head off for real. I was a big chicken back then a far contrast to myself now.

[Main Street Magic]

Ah, I also remember going to Circus World back in 1977...in fact....here is just one photo that I took while we were there.

[dancer12]

Curses for being so young.... I think I would have really liked this park. I love the circus and really would like to try the trapeze and stuff. The only problem is i hate clowns... they're so scary

[uptownish]

Wow... circus world. W Looping-- I won't spell the name, its probably blocked on this site.. although it truly was the name of the coaster, and think Oscar Mayer-- their roller coaster was one of the first coasters I ever went on. And I had a terrifying moment on their sultan thing-- I was a kid.. .the only one on the ride, and the darn thing changed directions at the top, but stayed there for a while-- I thought it broke down.

This was in the 80's at some point, I think it was right before the park changed hands-- there was NO ONE in the park

[Tinker Bell]

Been there, done that, got the clown faced picture to prove it!

[dwellspompano]

We visited CW when I was a young kid ...Im a 40 yr old kid now (heehee)... anyway it was never crowded and once I remember my dad and sis riding the rollercoaster like 6 times in a row without ever getting off becuase there was no line.

[BamaJenn]

So funny I saw this thread... my grandmother (who lived just outside the entrance to Downtown Disney) just recently passed away and while cleaning out her home I found an old photo album with pictures from one of my first trips to WDW as a kid. At the end of the album were pictures from some other park... all circus themed and I couldn't figure out where the heck it was. Thanks for the info... now I know!